Hassan Beigi added the Olefin Unit would meet the feedstock of other units of the company.

He said other units of the company had experienced pilot production process and were undergoing the official production stage.

“Olefin 10 has totally made 97.88 percent progress,” said Beigi, adding the preliminary construction operations of the unit started in mid-2001 and two billion dollars had been invested in the project.

Olefin 10 is one of the most lucrative projects of the petrochemical industry, which aims to produce one million tons of polymers, some 1.5 tons of ethylene and propylene, and about one million tons of chemical and petrochemical products.

Of products, less than 10 percent is used by domestic industries and the remaining is exported abroad.

OLEFIN 12

The contract on the tendered Olefin 12 of Assalouyeh would be finalized within the next four to six months, said the deputy managing director of Petrochemical Development Management Company.

Mohammad Khayyat talking to PIN blamed lack of the necessary technology for the delays in the project.

Elaborating on other projects of the company, he said the tender documents of two Assalouyeh-based ethane units would be provided within one month, adding the two plants’ feedstock would be the gas of phases 6-8 of South Pars field as well as ethane and heavier gases of Fajr Refinery.

According to him, the three tenders of the private sector’s Golestan, Zanjan, and Lordegan urea and ammonia complexes were underway. National Petrochemical Company (NPC) holds 20 percent of the complexes’ shares.

Khayyat, who is also the head of company’s board of directors, said two one million ton ethylene plants would be negotiated in the near future, adding the duo would feed the eastern ethylene pipeline.

“The company also put the Assalouyeh centralized reserves plan to the tender in a bid to store products such as propane, butane, methanol, ammonia, and ethylene for exports,” said the deputy, adding the company had yet to sign contractors.

The NPC Managing Director Gholam-Hossein Nejabat had already announced that China was keen to make a 2.7 billion dollar investment in Olefin 12 plan.

He said the Iranian and Chinese officials held new round of negotiations, whose main topics revolved around a 2.7 billion dollar investment in Olefin 12 plan and investment in downstream and upstream oil projects in Iran.

Nejabat said, “China is the first country the Iranian party will pay a visit to hold official talks.”